Student Punished for Refusing to Recite Islamic Profession of Faith

A Maryland high school punished a student
for refusing to profess faith in Islam, gave her failing grades for a
series of assignments that violated her Christian beliefs then
threatened her father with arrest for complaining, a federal lawsuit
charges.

A spokeswoman for the district told WND that officials were aware of
the issue but said Arnold and Morris would not be commenting.

Plaintiffs are Marine Corps veteran John Kevin Wood and his wife,
Melissa, who “refuse[d] to allow their teenage daughter to be subjected
to Islamic indoctrination and propaganda in her high school world
history class.”

The lawsuit charges that the defendants’ “curriculum, practices,
policies, actions, procedures, and customs promote the Islamic faith by
requiring students to profess the five pillars if Islam.”

The students, the complaint says, were required to “write out and confess the shahada, the Islamic profession of faith.”

The lawsuit charges that school officials concealed the curriculum by
using two separate history textbooks, one of which contained the
Islamic teachings and which students were required to leave at school.
The other, which did not contain the teachings, was allowed to be taken
home, the complaint explains. The school also excised the Islamic
teachings from the course syllabus.

“Defendants have treated plaintiffs’ Christian beliefs and heritage
with deliberate indifference, and have been hostile toward C.W. [the
student] and her family,” the complaint alleges. It explains that Arnold
and Morris violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments as well as
state and federal law by “depriving plaintiffs and C.W. of their
fundamental right to be free from a public school’s promotion of certain
religious beliefs, their fundamental right to be able to speak freely
and raise concerns about religion being taught in our public schools
without retaliation, and their fundamental right to be free from unjust
discrimination against their Christian heritage.”

The legal team notes the shahada states, “There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.”

“For non-Muslims, reciting the statement is sufficient to convert one
to Islam,” the complaint says. “Moreover, the second part of the
statement, ‘Muhammad is the messenger of Allah,’ signifies the person
has accepted Muhammad as their spiritual leader.

The teenager was also
required to memorize and recite the Five Pillars of Islam.”

Not only did the district refuse permission for C.W. to opt out of
the religious assignments, it imposed grades of zero. Further, the
complaint says, the district disparaged Christianity in multiple ways,
including the statement, “Most Muslims’ faith is stronger than the
average Christian.” The district taught that the West engages in
“imperialistic pursuits” and insists “men are the managers of women.”

It also taught: “To Muslims, Allah is the same god that is worshipped in Christianity and Judaism.”

The district’s teachings specified that the Quran “is the word of
Allah,” while Jews and Christians “believe the Torah and the Gospels
were revealed to Moses and the New Testament writers.”

“The sugarcoated version of Islam taught at La Plata High School did
not mention that the Quran explicitly instructs Muslims ‘to kill the
unbelievers wherever you find them.’ (Sura 9-5),” the complaint says.

John Kevin Wood discovered the teachings and called to voice his
objections, the lawsuit says, but the school imposed a “no trespass”
order against him, threatening him with arrest if he came onto school
property. The school refused to give him any opportunity “to refute the
untrue allegations” made by Arnold.

“The Woods, as Christians, believe that Jesus Christ is the son of
God and our Savior, that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins,
and that following the teachings of Jesus Christ is the only path to
eternal salvation. The Woods believe that it is a sin to profess
commitment in word or writing to any god other than the Christian God.
Thus, they object to their daughter being forced to deny the Christian
God and to her high school promoting Islam over other religions,” the
lawsuit explains.

“The school ultimately refused to allow the Woods’ daughter to
opt-out of the assignments, forcing her to either violate her faith by
pledging to Allah or receive zeros for the assignments. Together, John
Kevin Wood, Melissa Wood, and their daughter chose to remain faithful to
God and refused to complete the assignments, even though failing grades
would harm her future admission to college and her opportunities to
obtain college scholarships.”

Wood was deployed in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm “and lost
friends to Islamic extremists,” the complaint notes. Later, he
“responded as a firefighter to the 9/11 Islamic terror attack on the
Pentagon.”

“Wood witnessed firsthand the destruction created in the name of
Allah and knows that Islam is not ‘a religion of peace.’ The school
prevented John Kevin Wood from defending his daughter’s Christian
beliefs against Islamic indoctrination, even though as a Marine, he
stood in harm’s way to defend our nation, and the Charles County Public
Schools,” the lawsuit says.

Part of a school worksheet promoting Islam

“Defendants forced [the] Woods daughter to disparage her Christian
faith by reciting the shahada, and acknowledging Mohammed as her
spiritual leader. Her world history class spent one day on Christianity and two weeks
immersed in Islam. Such discriminatory treatment of Christianity is an
unconstitutional promotion of one religion over another,” said Thomas
More Law Center President Richard Thompson.

The lawsuit concludes: “Defendants deliberately [chose] this
curriculum, instructional materials, and texts, and punished Christian
students who disagree with espousing religious statements and
reproducing religious doctrine that promotes Islam. The actions,
policies, procedures, customs, and curriculum of defendants
unconstitutionally endorse the Islamic religion.”

As a result, it says, the Christian family suffered “irreparable
harm, including the loss of their fundamental constitutional rights,
entitling them to declaratory and injunctive relief.”“Defendants, by requiring C.W. to make reference to a belief in the
Muslim god, forced C.W. to directly violate her sincerely held religious
beliefs. Defendants did not allow C.W. to opt out of these assignments
or receive alternative assignments. Defendants refused to accommodate
C.W.’s Christian beliefs. Instead, defendants coerced and punished C.W.
for refusing to violate her Christian beliefs,” the claim explains.